Zipper Heart Ornaments

January 18, 2015

Often those who have had open heart surgery are said to have become part of the Zipper Club. These hearts are a perfect gift for a heart warrior :).

You’ll need a 7″ jean zipper. Honestly you don’t have to use a jean zipper, but the thick metal zipper just looks so much better than the nylon zippers. Trust me on this. They do have some neat colorful jean zippers, but I don’t love that the back of them are not printed on as well (which I understand that) and so I don’t like the white back to show when they are finished. They also have some great lace looking zippers at Joann that would be super cute. You’ll also need scissors, hot glue, and some type of ribbon or cording to hang the ornaments with.

Here’s a close-up of the stuff I bought at Joann.

You’ll want to cut the cord for hanging about 10″-11″ long.

Ok, so at the base of the zipper, cut each side at a 45 degree angle as pictured below.

Unzip the zipper until the zipper pull is about 4 teeth from the bottom of the zipper.

From your view, when looking at the top side of the zipper with the zipper pull, cut off 7 teeth on the left side and 5 teeth on the right side.

Now practice curving the zipper so you are sure you know how you are going to be gluing it. You want the zipper portion to be on the side towards you on the curve and then flatten it so the fabric of the zipper meets the bottom. See both pictures below.

Place hot glue onto the right side of the zipper (when looking at it).

Now place the other side of the zipper on top of that glue dot. Make sure that you are curving and placing the correct piece on top and not twisting it the wrong way or turning the zipper the wrong way.

See how the teeth are right next to each other on either zipper side:

Take your cording or ribbon and loop so there is a hanging portion for the tree, and then place both ends UNDER the zipper pull portion, and place on top of the bit you just glued together. This is optional but it will hide the ends of the hanging method you pick. Otherwise you can just glue it to the back but this gives it a more polished finished look.

Now glue over the ends of the ribbon and up the sides about 1/2″.

Carefully place the end of the zipper over that, pressing down to glue in place. Careful not to burn yourself! Press until it won’t move and the glue is dried, so not long.

Here’s the back now. I didn’t get my one piece over to the side it should be but it’s not a big deal. Hold the heart like the pictures shows below:

Place hot glue in the middle for about a 1″ section on the heart as shown:

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About Love From Ruby

Love From Ruby was started in an effort to collect and donate items to families whose hearts are breaking and need a bit of comfort. Whether from emotional surgeries endured by their child, long hospital stays, or saying goodbye all too early, this is our small gesture to show we care. Thank you for stopping by! Read More…